Parental Supervision Suggested
by electric gurrl
Summary: Zuko, Azula and monumentally bad ideas involving fireworks. — Gen. O/S.


A/N: This was literally irresistible. Oh siblings and fireworks, such hijinks.

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 **Parental Supervision Suggested**

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"I didn't say it was a _good_ idea. I just said it was an _idea_." The ten year old girl pauses, her glittery golden eyes drifting to the darkening sky above. "Well, since it was my idea, it probably is a good idea. So stop worrying."

They stand alone, in a very boring courtyard, and Azula is sitting calmly on a box of fireworks, kicking her bare feet back and forth. How they are so clean, Zuko has no clue, particularly in this horrible garden. It is a death-trap. There are metal shreds of broken things in the yellowing grass, and the dead flowers are covered in dead _weeds_ as well. What once was probably a fountain is now just greenish stagnant water and cracked stone.

Altogether, the fireworks Azula is suggesting to light are probably less dangerous than the place they were told to go play while the adults talked about war.

"Okay, but if this goes wrong, we're... well, no, I actually don't think anyone will punish us. But..." Zuko is not sure what objection he has, but he does have a horrible feeling whenever she looks that excited.

Azula gently presses her hand to the cold storage shed she has in place of the heart. "It's alright. I know you're afraid. But I'll protect you from the horrible, scary fire."

"Just give me the box." Zuko rolls his eyes. He does not have _time_ for these games. _Zuko_ should be allowed in those meetings; he is close to thirteen, but instead, he is supposed to be playing with his sister.

Of course, Azula crosses her arms tightly over her chest. "No. I'm the one who got it. You have to ask for it. Or at least give me the password."

Zuko rubs his face. _Go play with Azula_ , his uncle says after Zuko could not find his father anywhere. He expected her to just be bored or mean, but instead he walks in on a pint-sized girl with a crate of fireworks for the celebrations tonight. It is not the weirdest thing she has done, he supposes.

"Please," Zuko says begrudgingly and Azula rolls her eyes.

"That is a _pathetic_ request." She has no time for such things, and she tilts her chin towards the nearly indigo sky.

"Do you want to blow up fireworks before someone stops us or not?" Zuko demands harshly and Azula shrugs.

"No one is going to stop us. When is the last time we had any parental supervision, outside of gesturing towards fenced places and hoping we stay put?" Azula gestures pointedly at the garden that probably would be unfit for a pet.

"Why are the simplest things like pulling teeth with you?" Zuko exclaims and she just laughs again.

"I relent. It's getting dark, _finally_ ," Azula says, stepping off of the crate that she was zealously guarding. She glances up at the shreds of cloud masking the moon, and bites her lips quite eagerly. "Open the crate."

They have never been close to fireworks before, even though they are Fire Nation _royalty_. It isn't as if a little fire poses any risk to them, but maybe they are just to plebian for their father's taste.

Azula points again at the crate, not understanding why he is being so _difficult_.

"What's in it?" Zuko stares at her skeptically, already not liking this.

"A huge spider-cat." Azula sighs in utter exasperation. "I admittedly can't open it. If I could have, don't you think I would have before you got here?"

"Just burn it open. That's what you do with everything else." Zuko still glares at the crate as if it will pop open and something will latch onto his face.

"Yes, let me just set the crate of _explosives_ on fire," Azula snaps and Zuko moves and pulls off the lid.

All squabbling is forgotten, when their golden eyes both light up with a childish excitement that they have lost since father became Fire Lord. It is a _treasure_ trove of every kind and shade of red, and they all look very explosive.

"I don't know what any of these do," Azula says, squinting at it.

Zuko would like Azula admitting not to know something in writing. But _he_ wants to know one thing."Where did you get this anyway?"

"It was over there. I get bored sometimes." Azula shrugs and gestures for Zuko to reach into the crate again.

He weighs his odds, decides he has little to lose, and grabs a handful of the long ones that look like dynamite. Azula takes a slender one thinner than most branches and examines it.

"Why does this have no fuse?" she demands of it before just lighting it anyway. Zuko flinches, and Azula holds it at arm's length despite her control of the flame, and it starts sparkling like stars, in so many shades of gold and red.

She guides it through the air and then tosses it onto the stone path. "That's boring. Those, though..."

"Why don't we warm up to these ones?" Zuko suggests and, miraculously, his little sister agrees.

"Hmmm. ZuZu, go get that jar over there. Please." Azula rolls her eyes into the crate as he accepts her _please_ because he wants to know what she is going to do. "No, not _mine_! Yours!"

Well, now Zuko has a bad feeling about this. "I like this jar."

Azula grits her teeth as she hoists herself halfway into the crate to try to reach the little box. It hurts her stomach, but she _wants_ it. "It's a hunk of shaped glass. Anyway, what am I going to do to it anyway?"

"Something horrible," Zuko replies.

"Ugh, fine, take mine. It's not like I care, anyway. I just wanted to see your face." Azula shrugs. "Oh, and go get that stone vase thing."

"This better be worth it," he grumbles to himself as he brings Azula's engraved glass jar and the surprisingly light stone basin. The flowers in it were dead anyway.

Azula pulls out a small metal box and then seizes the jar.

"You're welcome," he snaps and she ignores him before carefully setting it in the middle of the basin Zuko dropped.

"Alright. Here. Take a few of these," Azula suggests, her tone a bit kinder now. He takes a few of the small spheres and wonders why no one has taught them about fireworks before. They _should_ know what these are. But Azula seems to have seen these ones before, which is either terrifying or encouraging. "Okay, whoever blows up the jar first wins, and the loser has to light all of those dynamite ones at the same time."

Zuko honestly doesn't care either way. He just wants to see all of those exploding at once, to be honest. He kind of likes the fact that she found fireworks.

"Ready, one, two ─" They both throw before she says three, because they both know she isn't going to wait for three.

"That did nothing," Zuko snaps and Azula throws another.

It snaps lightly and she frowns. "These fireworks are horrible. I saw one of these totally blow up a jar once. Hmph. Well, as the older and much faster sibling, I suggest that you light up all of those."

"No. You found the fireworks and I'm not in the mood for dying today."

"Why do you always expect the absolute worst in me? It's hurtful," Azula says lightly as she goes and tries to figure out how to tie them all together. She manages with a few loose steel strings in this decrepit garden.

Honestly, even if there _weren't_ fireworks here, it is definitely a deathtrap for children.

"Start running," Azula says loudly and Zuko briefly freezes as she lights all of the fuses. When he sees _her_ running, he runs with her. "Wait, Zuko slow down!"

"Why?"

"So I can run past you!"

They are interrupted by a sudden flash, and a light show to rival any they have seen before. The colors are strange, the sounds close and thunderous, like they are on a very beautiful battlefield. At first the spurts are small and beautiful, like little stars made of flame.

But the serenity doesn't last for long, when one of them comes at the royal siblings like an artillery strike.

And then Zuko shouts over the deafening explosions, "Why did you light them on their side?"

"Run the other direction!" Azula shoves him forward, deflecting a pulse of bright pink fire coming at them. "I didn't know that they would do that!"

She sounds genuinely panicked, and so he believes her for once. The sun has set now, and there is _no way_ that their stolen fireworks are going to go unnoticed as the courtyard reverberates with crashing, and the rainbow lights of different shapes just endless spurt, sputter and burst like a very angry geyser at Ash Forest Park.

They are both pinned against a tree, holding up their hands to shield themselves with their bending from stray sparks. One of the few mutual experiences Zuko and Azula share in their lives is the sharp intake of breath and cringe when one the bursts lights up the side of the veranda leading to this dead garden.

"Wildfire," is all Azula can say as she watches the dead bushes incinerate and quickly quenches the flames about the engulf everything.

The misleadingly powerful fireworks that _Azula_ put onto their _side_ have at last stopped, and the siblings just exchange a glance. Oh, they are in _so much trouble_.

And then a final mutual scream as the small embers not on either firebender's mind light the crate.

"STOP THAT!" Zuko screams

"YOU DO IT IF YOU'RE SO ─!"

The crate goes out and Azula and Zuko need not look at each other to know that they are in trouble now. That was definitely not one of them, stopping a destructive force to rival what they just ran from.

Peering through the white ash raining around them, and looking at how _blackened_ the garden has become, their eyes fall on, thankfully, not their father. Azula has never been so happy to see her uncle. Well, she has never been happy to see him in the first place, but she could hug him right now.

"Most children just use those to have pretend Agni Kais," is the only remark the general can make.

Azula and Zuko stare at him with aghast expressions, and he cannot help but laugh. They are still frozen with terror, and Iroh just laughs more.

He shakes his head slowly. "I think you both have just passed a certain rite of childhood. I certainly destroyed a very nice room while fighting with your father with those indoors. But lighting them on their side..."

More laughter.

Zuko finally loosens and steps away from the tree.

"I think that maybe Azula should have stuck with the small sparkly ones," Zuko snaps and Azula sighs and touches her singed bang.

"Do you think... a person could do that?" Azula chokes out as she gazes at the dead candles. "I mean, it's probably feasible. Well, not the stars or anything... maybe, _maybe_ the stars... Another project, ZuZu?"

"You almost killed us. I am going inside forever," Zuko says with a sharp sigh. "You can deal with your horrible idea."

"Sleep with your eyes open," Azula mouths at him and he looks quite concerned. And then brightly, "There are still a few of those candles left! Thankfully I didn't light them, Uncle."

Azula beams with the knowledge Iroh accidentally bestowed. The garden burns. Zuko waits until he is completely out of her sight to laugh.

That was definitely the most fun he has had in a _long_ time.


End file.
